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jam and clotted cream, to serve

Method

Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Tip the flour into a large bowl with the salt and baking powder, then mix. Add the butter, then rub in with your fingers until the mix looks like fine crumbs. Stir in the sugar.

Put the milk into a jug and heat in the microwave for about 30 secs until warm, but not hot. Add the vanilla and lemon juice, then set aside for a moment. Put a baking sheet in the oven.

Make a well in the dry mix, then add the liquid and combine it quickly with a cutlery knife – it will seem pretty wet at first. Scatter some flour onto the work surface and tip the dough out. Dredge the dough and your hands with a little more flour, then fold the dough over 2-3 times until it’s a little smoother. Pat into a round about 4cm deep.

Take a 5cm cutter (smooth-edged cutters tend to cut more cleanly, giving a better rise) and dip it into some flour. Plunge into the dough, then repeat until you have four scones. By this point you’ll probably need to press what’s left of the dough back into a round to cut out another four. Brush the tops with beaten egg, then carefully place onto the hot baking tray.

Bake for 10 mins until risen and golden on the top. Eat just warm or cold on the day of baking, generously topped with jam and clotted cream. If freezing, freeze once cool. Defrost, then put in a low oven (about 160C/fan140C/gas 3) for a few mins to refresh.

Tip

Know-how

Adding a squeeze
of lemon juice to
the milk sours it slightly,
mimicking sharp-tasting
buttermilk, often used in
scones but sometimes
tricky to find. The slightly
acidic mix gives a
boost to the raising
agents in the flour and
baking powder.

Tip

Jane says...

Scones are so quick to
make that my mum would
often emerge with a plateful
before we’d even noticed
she’d gone! I’ve borrowed
her tip of using warm milk,
and added a few tricks of
my own for light scones
that rise every time

Tip

Towering tall

For toweringly tall scones, always pat the
dough out a bit thicker than you think you
should. I say pat rather than knead because
scones are essentially a sweet soda bread and,
like other soda breads, will become tough
when over-handled. Kick-start the scones’ rise
with a hot baking tray and don’t leave the
dough sitting around. If you like your scones
with lots of juicy fruit, stir 85g plump sultanas
into the mix at the same time as the sugar.

These rose perfectly and had a good texture (though they needed an extra 5 minutes in the oven as others have noted). However, my family didn't like the flavour at all. The vanilla extract gave them a strangely artificial aftertaste. Personally I think they needed a bit more sugar too. I wouldn't make these again, I'll stick to the buttermilk recipes in future.

I spent yesterday morning making Bramble Jam and came across this recipe to accompany the jam.These scones are amazing, my daughter messaged me to say the were the best scones ever.I will be recommending this recipe to anyone that will listen.THEY CAN MAKE THEIR OWN JAM THOUGH ;)Paul

I have made so many disastrous scones but this recipe has changed that! They were gorgeous. Top tips in the recipe - warm the milk, squeeze of lemon juice, pat the dough don't roll or knead it, put on a hot baking tray and don't be concerned about the dough being a little sticky when it comes out of the bowl, this will soon change once you have turned it out onto the floured surface.Baking for a charity cream tea next weekend and this is the recipe I will use. FANTASTIC!!! Thank you.

This was an easy recipe to follow and produced 8 generous portions. The texture was very good, the flavour, in my opinion needed a little something extra, possibly more salt. Nevertheless, that is a very small negative as really they were perfect the way that they were. Sports day picnic treat for us mums tomorrow!!

I made these last week and they were so yummy. I have never made scones before and they turned out just perfect. I did add a glaze of icing to the tops as it brought back memories of the scones that I use to buy from a bakers years ago :) Served with jam and clotted cream as suggested. I'm making some more tomorrow to take on a picnic...thank you so much for a great recipe.

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